hanging by a thread: incredible “drawings”

on view at the kunstgaleriebonn gallery in bonn from june 6th to july 20, 2012

detail:  the lines are actually thread glued down one at a time

“the thread has been adhered to the paper. the second layer… is adhered to the paper… at the intersections.”


incredible detail “drawing” by hadi tabatabi. that is if you can call them drawings, granted they are included in the sally & waynn kramarsky epic works-on-paper collection next to richard tuttle, robert smithson, jasper johns, eva hesse, donald judd, richard serra, john cage, and on and on. this new series is constructed with thread, a common material used by the artist in past work, but never in this manner… “in this new work there are two layers of thread. one layer sits directly on the paper, and the whole length of the thread has been adhered to the paper. the second layer which is perpendicular to the first layer sits on top of the first layer and is adhered to the paper only at the ends and to the first layer thread at the intersections.” this kind of patience and detail is something of an anomaly in our time, and that is exactly why i love this work. of course, nothing is like seeing these up-close. i bought a piece last year in new york from the danese gallery. if you are in germany in june/july check out the show “papier/paper III” at the kunstgaleriebonn, in bonn june 6th to july 20, and at the denese again in new york, june 14 through august 17. by wk